Full-service Minnesota financial firm Apple Valley Accounting & Tax has acquired Gilbertson CPA, with office locations in New Prague and Burnsville.

Smart Tax, a 28-unit tax preparation chain, has acquired 15-unit chain Eagle Tax Services.

This was quite a busy year with large vendor financings, acquisitions, cloud and mobile growth and new products galore but I think rather than an expected year in review (we have a pretty good slideshow on that), I thought I’d offer my take on what 2014 will likely bring in the way of accounting technology news.

UXC Eclipse Inc., the U.S. arm of Australia-based UXC Ltd., has purchased Tectura North America, effectively creating the largest Microsoft Dynamics reseller in the country.

Booz & Co.'s global partners have voted to approve a combination with PwC.

Chattanooga-based Top 100 Firm Decosimo has merged with Larry Hyatt & Associates boosting its state and local tax expertise.

KPMG will acquire the analytical applications company Link Analytics LLC, with the intent of expanding the U.S. audit, tax and advisory firm’s data and analytics capabilities.

Ernst & Young has purchased the U.S. tax preparation and court accounting outsourcing businesses of Thomson Reuters, which includes approximately 175 employees.

BDO USA has branched out into the Pittsburgh market with the acquisition of Top 100 Firm Alpern Rosenthal. The deal is expected to close on December 16.

Nicholas Montgomery LLP and TravisWolff LLP have agreed to merge. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Carl Moses of Moses & Associates has agreed to merge his practice with Knueven, Schroeder & Co.

Open-source ERP and CRM software maker xTuple has released xTupleCommerce – version 2.0 of its eCommerce Web portal – and acquired Web consultancy Artsmith Media to support customer demand for the offering.

Sage North America partner BrainSell Technologies has purchased Holliston, Mass.-based partner K-Four Systems for an undisclosed amount.

A roundup of mergers & acquisitions among accounting firms

The past couple of weeks have been a period where you have to ask, “what didn’t happen?” Rebranding, major financings, practice growth, practice closures; we had it all.

Top CPA firm ParenteBeard recently announced to its clients that it is closing its two-decade old technology practice, ParenteBeard Technology, effective this Friday, November 29.

WeiserMazars LLP has merged with the Resnick Druckman Group LLC.

Kabat, Schertzer, De La Torre, Taraboulos & Co. has plans to merge with Homestead, Fla.-based Conn & Sharp PA. The combination is expected to go into effect on December 1.

The Bonadio Group and Stulmaker, Kohn & Richardson have finalized an arrangement to merge, and will operate under the Bonadio name beginning December 1.

Long-time Sage North America partner RKL eSolutions has effectively expanded its Sage 500 ERP practice, primarily by taking on former consultants, executives and product customers from Portland, Ore.-based Sage partner ISM.